Believe it -- there is a right and wrong way to approach setting career goals&period; In a nutshell&comma; the more specific your goals are&comma; the better&period;

If your professional goals are nebulous&comma; like “become rich” or “gain success&comma;” you may be psyching yourself out without even realizing what you’re doing&period; Setting specific goals gives you the motivation and focus to begin making them a reality&period;

Ready to readjust your goal setting methods&quest; Here are just six reasons why you need to set specific goals to get ahead in your professional career to get ahead&colon;

1&period; They keep you motivated&period;

Setting specific goals allows you to get really clear on what you are working toward in your career and why&period;

For instance&comma; if you have a vague goal like “make more money”&comma; it will supply similarly vague motivation&period; When you reach the first sign of resistance&comma; that goal will seem unattainable and too hard&comma; and you’ll be more likely to give up&period; On the other hand&comma; a specific goal like “buy a condo in San Diego” is very specific and gives you something specific to work toward and to help you maintain motivation&period;

2&period; You’re more likely to achieve specific goals&period;

Goal Setting Theory is the culmination of research that began in the 1960s by Dr&period; Edwin Locke and Dr&period; Gary Latham&period; In researching the connection between clear goals and performance&comma; they found that there was a relationship between how difficult and how specific a goal was and people’s performance of a task&period; Further&comma; they discovered that specific and difficult goals led to better task performance than vague or easy goals&period;

Basically&comma; research shows that when you have specific long-term goals&comma; you’re far more likely to perform better&comma; which will ultimately make achieving said goals far more possible&period;

3&period; You can break big goals into mini goals&period;

A benefit of setting specific goals is that you can then get tactical about how to make them a reality&period; Namely&comma; you can break each goal down into mini goals or milestones&period;

Say that one of your goals is to increase sales for your business by 25 percent this year&period; You can set specific dollar amounts as milestones for each month or quarter&period; Having mini goals like this will help you stay inspired and will give you an impetus to put specific actions in work to make them happen&period;

4&period; You can adjust as needed&period;

Specific goals are kind of like a career roadmap&period; However&comma; just like your car’s GPS&comma; sometimes you need to shift the destination for various reasons&period; It’s easier to shift or adjust a specific goal than it is to change a vague one&period;

For instance&comma; say you are approaching your very specific goal at a more rapid rate than anticipated&period; To keep yourself motivated&comma; you can look at that goal and adjust it to meet your current circumstances&period; This way&comma; you always have something to work toward and can continue to push yourself in positive ways&period;

5&period; They will make you more confident&period;

There’s nothing like the sense of accomplishment that comes from setting a specific goal&comma; working hard and then finally attaining it&period; It makes you feel confident and secure in your own abilities&period; When you’re imbued with this sense of self-accomplishment&comma; it has the effect of making you feel more self-confident&period; Self-confidence can help you advance quicker in your career and improve your performance&comma; which helps keep you working toward your goals with ease&period;

6&period; They make you more ambitious&period;

Once you’ve set and then attained a few specific goals&comma; you’ll believe in yourself even more&period; This means that as you progress in your career&comma; your goals will become even bigger and more ambitious&period; By continually setting specific goals and adjusting them to remain aspirational&comma; you’ll create a powerful source of inspiration that will serve you throughout the course of your career and life&period;

Set specific goals from now on and you’ll see a big difference over time&excl;